Friday, 30 May 2014

Hello everyone and thank you so much for taking the time to drop in here. Today I am sharing a step by step that I created for the latest challenge over at A Vintage Journey: The theme is Add some Texture and below is a project that shows how you can add texture in different ways.

I created a folder for two size 10 tags, made out of two DL sized envelopes. Below I show you with pictures how I put it together, it's easy and very effective I think.

To cover the outside I took a piece of the new Tim Holtz Kraft resist papers from the Motifs pack. I took one of the Kraft coloured papers, cut it to 8.75 by 8.75" (22.2cm) and covered it with a layer of Gesso, the resist still shows through a bit, which I like as it adds a subtle bit of texture.

Next I added some texture paste through some Layering Stencils on the right side, and just a thin layer Crackle Paste on the left side into which I stamped with an old text stamp.

On the picture it says "embossing folder", really it should say Layering Stencil, sorry about that...
A little more texture on the top right:

Now a quick note on these pastes: I recently purchased both the Wendy Vecchi texture and crackle pastes and they are fantastic! Then while clearing out some old stuff from my stash, I found some really old Dreamweaver texture and crackle pastes that I have had for years, and you know what, they are absolutely identical, - so if you happen to have some old ones, don't bother to get the new ones. The Wendi Vecchi ones are made by Dreamweaver and truly, they are the same and even though I had not used mine for years they were perfect still and probably a whole lot cheaper....

Ok, on to my project. The next step was to add some colour with Distress Paints, colours listed below.

I wanted to try and achieve a soft look for my paper, to emulate the look of the Wallflower paper collection. I stamped my favourite butterflies from the Papillion set onto tissue paper and also took two scraps of the top layer of a paper serviette and adhered them with Glue n Seal, I also added some stenciling with Distress Inks.

Below is a close up where you can see how by adding a bit more paint with your fingers you can blend the tissue seamlessly into the background:

By now I folded the paper in half length wise as that is how it would fit around the envelopes. I also added some more stamping and stenciling:

Now for the inside, I decided to use the actual Wallflower papers for that. First I lined the inside of the envelopes, by measuring carefully and cutting the angles to help slide the paper inside the envelopes:

Next I took another envelope and cut it apart to create a template to line around the opening of the envelopes, you'll see in a moment what I mean:

I used this template to cut two other bits of the wallflower papers, but not before having added some more texture with one of the Texture Fades embossing folders. Below you will see it all glued in place:

As you can see, I also added a little more stenciling..

To add the cover to the outside of the envelopes, I first added a bit of dyed seam binding to each side to be able to tie my folder shut and then simply glued the cover around the outside of the envelopes:

Now onto the tags: I used two #10 Manila tags and trimmed about 1 cm from the bottom so they could fit comfotably inside the envelopes. Here is the first one:

I used the same techniques as on the front cover but only used Distress Inks for the backgrounds. The vocal images on both tags are from the Found Relatives cards. Here is a close up of a steampunk charm I added to the top:

And here is the second tag:

And a closeup of the top, the sentiment on the little banner is from the Donna Downey Empowered Words set.

And here you can see how both tags fit snugly inside the little folder:

Well, that's it, well done if you are still with me and I hope I made it all more or less clear....

I have listed most of the products used below and they are all available from Countryview Crafts who are also the sponsors of our challenge.

Hope you will play along and add some texture to your project. Make sure to check out the amazing projects my team mates have created, you should not be short on ideas of how to add texture to your project!

Thursday, 29 May 2014

Hi everyone and sorry, today is just a preview post. But if you want to see the rest (and I would of course love it if you took the time to do so), all you need to do is click HERE
So here is the sneak peek:

Wednesday, 28 May 2014

Hi everyone and lovely to have you drop in! Today I am showing you the project I made for the latest challenge of the Compendium of Curiosities Volume 3 crew, hosted by Linda Ledbetter.

This fortnight the challenge is all about using Tim's fabulous Faux Tea Rose Technique.This technique can be found on page 65 of the book.Like in previous weeks Tim and Mario have donated a huge prize packet for one lucky winner and in addition The Inspiration Emporium are offering a $50 for the overall winner of this week's contest.Well, onto my project: I made a fancy card and I'll give you a quick step by step:I started with a piece of white 6 x 12" card and scored it at 3 and 9" along the 12" side. I then cut the two end bits with Tim's Tattered Doily die.

Next I cut a frame with the Cabinet Card die and insert, I kept the frame as was but cut the insert in half length wise

I wanted to use them as pretend shutters, so made two paper hinges to attach them to the frame:

I used those to attach my shutters to. Next I took a piece of 6 x 6 vintage scrapbook paper and attached it to the middle section of my card. I then cut the small cabinet card insert again from similar paper and attached that to the shutters on the side that would show. I coloured the window frame with vintage photo and adhered it to my card base.Onto the roses, I'm not going to tell you how I did them, you'll just have to get the book if you don't have it, but here you can see them, I made three from white card and then coloured with a mix of Victorian Velvet and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.

As you can see, I also made a central cross in my "window" from two strips of card and did a bit of stenciling on my window shutters.I mounted it all onto a piece of Cored'nations card from Tim's Nostalgic collection.

A little banner from the new Curvy Tattered Banners Decorative strip die and a butterfly finish it all off. I added Rockcandy Distress Glitter to the butterfly and the sentiment words are remnant rubs. I saw that cool idea on Paula Cheney's blog.

The butterfly is from the Butterfly Frenzy strip die. After I glittered it I drew a "body" with a Walnut Stain Distress marker and then went over it with a wet brush and inked around the edges. I'm really happy with how it turned out.. I just tucked it behind the banner.

One World One Heart

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Birthday Card

Just got a whole lot of new stamps from a brilliant place called the Stamp Smith. This is the image that I first saw on Docraft and really liked. I asked the friend who has used it in an ATC, where she got it. Well she borrowed it from a friend who got it from ebay as a one off. But.... it had a title. I googled the title, and hey presto found the site. They have great stamps and offer a really friendly fast service. I highly recommend them!

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